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France, Brazil demand more influence for developing countries

France and Brazil have urged a bigger role for the International Labour Organisation in a reshaped global economic system that would also see more influence given to developing countries in the United Nations Security Council.

REUTERS - France and Brazil urged a bigger role for the International Labour Organization in a reshaped global economic system that would also see more influence given to developing countries in the United Nations Security Council.

"Everywhere in the world, employees are asking for more justice, more security. They must be heard," French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said in a joint column published in France's Liberation daily and Brazil's Folha de Sao Paulo on Tuesday.

"International organisations must take account of the social effects of the current crisis. The role of the International Labour Organization must be very much strengthened," they said, according to a text of the column released in advance.

The column urging the creation of an "Alliance for Change" appears ahead of this week's meeting in L'Aquila, Italy of heads of the Group of Eight industrial nations -- the United States, Japan, Germany, Italy, France, Britain, Canada and Russia.

The meeting will also include parallel talks between the Group of Five countries -- China, India, Brazil, South Africa and Mexico and then talks between the two groups.

Sarkozy and Lula said the economic crisis had underlined the need for more contact between industrialised countries and the developing world.

The two leaders also repeated calls for an overhaul of the UN Security Council.

"To be effective, the Council has to reflect current realities, notably by granting a greater role to the big developing countries of each region like Brazil and India and a fairer representation for Africa and the big contributors to the United Nations system like Japan and Germany," they said.

"Brazil and France want to put forward to the world their common vision of a new multilateralism adapted to our multipolar world," they said.